Brutalism is a style of architecture… that much I knew already. And when I saw this building in Wellington a few weeks ago, that was the word that jumped into my head. But is that really how to describe this building?

Luckily, I can just dial up the Wikipedia article on brutalism… and so now I can say with more confidence: yes, that’s pretty much what brutalism looks like, although there are more extreme examples. Unfinished concrete, geometric shapes, minimal ornamentation… check, check, check. Brutalism often makes the building’s inner workings more prominent, like having the elevator shafts on the outside or otherwise exposing the building’s intended purpose. I didn’t see that done here, although it will be worth a return trip to look again sometime.

Brutalism has passionate followers even today, but has largely gone out of fashion as being soulless and making you feel like Big Totalitarian Brother is looming over you all the time. Certainly I would hesitate before venturing into National Office with whatever civic problem might bring me there. To quote The Living, an excellent movie I saw this weekend, “in the meantime we’ll just leave your petition here, it’ll do no harm.”

Last week was busy in Wellington, such that none of the hotels on the Ministry’s approved list were available. Not wanting to cancel the trip, I pushed a bit and got them to approve a stay at the Aura.

Fantastic location, cheap price, but many bad reviews…

Above is the nice-enough view from my window on an early drizzly morning. Well, not my room exactly, but the common area shared by my pod of six rooms, whose only windows gave onto the corridor and were therefore worse than useless… they let in unwanted noise and light and for what?

The Aura lives inside the James Smith Corner building, which was a big department store for most of its life. There were still some original 1930s details here and there.

So why and how does the Aura exist? There were too many little problems and weirdnesses to list here, but I can see why they had vacancy when all the other places were full. I’m glad I got to make the trip as planned, and nothing actually bad happened at the hotel, but I wouldn’t choose to stay there again.

A few final photos and thoughts from last week’s trip to Wellington….

This statue is decorated with words from the writings of Wellington beloved author Katherine Mansfield.

Smaug and me having a moment in the Wellington airport.

A whole lotta architecture going on.

We spent a nice hour at the Wellington Botanic Garden on our little mini-vacay. The easiest way to see the garden is to ride the cable car up to the top and stroll down.

The Carter Observatory is on the same grounds, but was closed that day. Sad.

The Japanese maple showed a certain frizziness that Lee is all too familiar with in this humid climate.

This bench commemorates the life and works of a former head gardener whose name – if one believes what one reads on commemorative benches – was Mr. Moss.

This tui bird gave us quite a show, but I didn’t get a good shot of his distinctive white throat plumage.

Baby ducks.

Some of the themed gardens, like the roses and camellias, weren’t blooming much, but overall it was a beautiful spot on a lovely day.

Wellington lives on government and related activities. There’s a big part of me that sympathises with the desk-bound civil servants yearning for a little self-expression who, I hope, buy and then actually wear these bad boys and bad girls.

The Hikitia is a working steam crane, thought to be the only one of its kind that still operates.